Student of Art and
Art History

A start…

At Your Service

The impulse to serve—to find meaning in service to the needs of others—may connect the sacrifice of the past with your present circumstances and very likely with varying possibilities ahead.  Your own sacrifice of time and energy in the form of study serves you, of course, but may well serve not only your immediate academic prospects but also countless others you’ll encounter in your chosen profession.

And service comes in many forms, thereby offering inexhaustible opportunities for a life of meaning.  Indeed, service may be so malleable that it expands to include inanimate objects, investing, for example, even battered old bed carts from the student health center with the fresh gleam of purpose.

After decades of faithful service to temporarily bed-ridden students at the health center, these scratched, dented, and generally broken bed carts appeared to have given their all.  With the arrival of replacement carts of recent manufacture, the old carts, friendless and drained of spirit, were free for the taking before their final destination on the scrapheap.  I selected twenty, which was not an easy haul.  Apart from transport, you can imagine additional problems involving storage and restoration. 

After a dose of sandblasting and powder-coating, the transformation was complete with the addition of Amish-built drawing boards that slide on top and adjust to a comfortable incline.  Endowed with new purpose, these drawing-carts remain at your service for many years to come. 

With this spirit in mind, let me say for the record that their very presence among our collection of plaster casts is an open invitation to all (or maybe a summons to those inclined toward mindfulness and well-being, given the many studies that confirm the salutary effects of even a few minutes per week of art-making).  Come draw whenever you please and for as long as you please.  The carts, materials, and casts are waiting for you like little wood and metal sentinels.